The Criterion Correction

It’s a Battle Royale between the sexes, complete with singing flowers, scratchy millipedes, and the ungodly spawn of a donkey and a unicorn. Meanwhile Troy is sacked by those tricksy Greeks and hawks are murdered with axes. Children frolic, pure and innocent, through the meadows with lambs and hogs, all while military combatants infiltrate the secure borders of this peaceful, pastoral retreat from the world. Rather than speech, let movements and touch be your language—unless you’re stuck in bed, in which case you should just stick to your HAM radio.

Are you a bit confused? Thinking that the authors of the Correction are somehow chemically impaired as they write this introduction? Fear not! You’re just not ready for the masterclass in cinema that is Louis Malle’s Black Moon.

No, seriously, that donkey/unicorn hybrid will haunt your dreams!

How do you sum up a movie like Hunger? Well, it stars Michael Fassbender and Davos Seaworth, and it focuses on deep-seated political unrest in Ireland. It also gives us some graphic depictions of a hunger strike and the lengths to which some brave souls would go to protest for their rights. In fact, let’s just admit that this is a hard movie to summarize with a comical blurb because it represents an individual’s lived experience. We hope you enjoy our look into one of Michael Fassbender’s defining roles.

This week we tackle a tale as old as time: how do you know when you’ve met “the one”? Well, okay, maybe it’s actually about how attraction works. Or, no, maybe it’s about not judging someone based on their past actions. So…this one’s a little complicated. Holden meets Alyssa (not Amy) and starts to fall for her, even though she prefers partners of the same sex. At the same time, Holden’s business partner (never tracer), Banky, also grapples with a forbidden attraction. This week Kevin Smith brings us a surprisingly deep tale about love on a spectrum and the funny way we negotiate social norms. Of course, being Kevin Smith, he also coats it in a veneer of crass language and hilariously awful analogies. Join us as we explore Chasing Amy.

Being filthy rich can have its disadvantages, especially when stealing someone’s identity is as simple as pasting a photo of yourself into someone’s passport. If you’re not careful, you could find yourself murdered by a purported childhood friend who then decides to steal your money and seduce your fianceé, Marge. Poor Phillipe Greanleaf—he just wasn’t prepared for the dastardly (and frequently improvised) schemes of Tom Ripley. Don’t feel bad, though: Phillipe was a bit of a jerk, and a certain incident involving the loss of Marge’s prized manuscript at sea might leave you cheering for Phillipe’s untimely demise.

If you enjoyed The Talented Mr. Ripley…please give us some idea why this movie is titled Purple Noon. And join us as we decide whether we want this as part of our collection, or if we think it should be cast out into the ocean in a burlap sack.

There’s garbage in the streets, rats in the house, and one lucky mouse with a ticket to the moon via balloon. Finally, we’re back to a lighthearted fun movie! Well, aside from portrayals of governmental failure, illustrations of the squalid conditions of poverty, and a sense of foreboding so great that our pre-pubescent protagonist James just might not make it out of Scotland alive. Join us this week for a disturbing (and fascinating) look into the social conditions of mid-20th-Century Glasgow with Lynne Ramsay’s Ratcatcher.

In this classic picture, Joe Estevez’s brother (some guy named Martin Sheen) gives us a glimpse of life on the run with his 15-year old girlfriend/accomplice, Holly. This melancholy tales asks the deepest of questions, such as: if Martin Sheen could write a song, would it really be as touching as one written by Nat King Cole? And should a murderous outlaw be compared to the sexy allure of James Dean? Oh, and how important is a good hat to a guy’s image? Join us as we head out into the plains to figure out the deepest meanings of life, the universe, and everything.

Also, we’re very pleased to introduce the new theme song for the Criterion Correction, composed by Chris Wrigley of Bunhaüs Jingles at podcastthemesongs.com

Have you ever wanted to get away from it all? Trade in your day job so that you could focus on what really matters? Do you feel like all you need to be happy is to fake your own death, undergo extensive reconstructive surgery, and ditch your wife and kids? If so, then have we got a deal for you. No, there’s no phone number to call, no webpage to visit, but if you’re just lucky enough to know someone inside the ritziest pyramid scheme in town, then you might just have a shot of getting in touch with the company that will make your dreams come true. Or, you know, the company that enables you to make all the same mistakes over again before forcing you to bring someone else into the fold. Join us for one of *ROCK HUDSON*‘s (emphasis mandatory) classic roles in Seconds.

Man, we get older, but Dazed and Confused stays the same age.  Wait, no it doesn’t; it obeys the same regulations of linear time as everything else in the universe does.  But, as a film that provides ample prosecutorial evidence for anyone who doesn’t like Ben Affleck, the template for early Matthew McConaughey, a singing Mila Jovovich, and Richard Linklater at his most rambling, Dazed and Confused certainly still proves to be of interest.  Right?  I mean, alright alright alright?

Were you born to run? Or born to kill? Yeah…that’s not a rhetorical question, because Yuki was born for the sole purpose of avenging her mother. So there’s going to be just the slightest bit of emotional baggage in this movie. Adapted from a manga of the same name, Lady Snowblood presents us with tale about the true cost of revenge. Likewise, I’d also be interested to know the true cost of the “blood geyser” practical effects technology in this film.

There can be only one!

Wait, this is the second female-lead character in a Japanese flick we’ve watched named Yuki?

Okay, two then.

Sometimes a guy just can’t get a break. And sometimes a guy might also be a cat. Or a cat might be a metaphor for a guy. Do you follow? No? Well, let’s put it this way: Llewyn Davis isn’t exactly having the time of his life as a struggling folk musician, and we get to follow along as each of his bad decisions leads him deeper into a potentially bleak reality. Of course, life can often feel a bit cyclical and Llewyn may be suffering some deja vu. Grab your guitars and join us as we peer into the depths of the Coen brother’s Inside Llewyn Davis, where you’ll get a glimpse of what would happen had Poe Dameron and Kylo Ren decided to become musicians.

Spoiler: Weird songs galore!